Nintendo will launch its 3DS game console on March 27, with a display that creates the illusion of three-dimensional depth. In a convenient twist, the device does not require the user to wear goofy-looking glasses to enjoy the full 3D effect. Airlines might adopt similar displays for their seatback TVs, giving passengers the option to see 3D content on in-flight entertainment systems.

The Nintendo 3DS uses a clever display developed bySharp. A layer of tiny stripes covers an LCD screen, so that your left and right eyes see different images. This trick creates an illusion of of depth and space. Nintendo is certainly using the technology for games, and has not entered talks with the aviation industry. But its glasses-free 3D innovation could work perfectly well on seatback TVs.

In fact, the technology is more ripe to become a standard perk on airplanes than it is to become popular in suburban living rooms. Here’s why: to enjoy the full 3D effect without wearing specs, you need to be positioned in front of, and relatively close to, the screen. A person glancing at the screen from an angle, or at a distance of a couple feet away, can’t see the illusion.

So the glasses-free effect only creates pop-up imagery when you are holding a game console at arm’s length – or when you’re sitting in an airplane and viewing the screen on the seatback in front of you. Glasses-free 3D does not work well in a large room, like in a suburban house, because the viewing area is too broad.

An airline could adapt the glasses-free 3D technology to stream movies and TV shows, not just video games. An airline could even install two cameras in the nose of a plane, to take advantage of the technology’s ability to mesh the video feeds and generate live, 3D broadcasts of takeoffs and landings.

The idea for pulling off the glasses-free 3D trick is not a trade secret. It has been widely understood for decades. But it is only recently that high-resolution LCD screens capable of creating spectacular images became cheap enough to sell in large numbers.

Original post here: http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/02/03/in-flight-movies-could-go-3d/